No Pain No Gain

So you finally get it together and decide to begin an exercise program. It almost does not matter whether it is walking, jogging, swimming, practicing yoga or step aerobics, weight-training or following some other plan. As long as it has gotten you off the couch and onto your feet in some active way, it is a good thing.

Perhaps this time, you really get into the program and stay with it for a while. Your muscle tone and overall fitness improve, your cholesterol numbers head in the right direction, your pulse slows, your weight goes down while your energy goes up, your self-image improves and your sense of well-being becomes cheerful. You may even feel as though you can keep going like that for years to come.

Then something happens that, at least temporarily, derails your plan. It could be an injury that forces you to put your program aside for a while. It could be a death or crisis in the family that not only disrupts your routine but also so demoralizes you that you have no heart for the physical activity. It could be the arrival of the Thanksgiving-to-New Year's holiday season, with all the parties and the abundance of rich food in the house. If your exercise program is an outdoor one - such as cross-country skiing - the arrival of warmer weather can force a halt. If you are like me, I am a fair weather runner. When the cold starts, I stop. It could even be a happy family event, such as a wedding, that requires a lot of your time and causes you to set aside your fitness plan for a while.

Whatever the case, in a very short time, all those physiological and fitness gains start to reverse. A cyclist says he finds regular cycling good for his body, mind and spirit. He also says it takes only about two weeks off the bike before he starts turning back into a "slug." That is why, during the cold months, most serious cyclists either switch to a winter activity such as skiing or spinning, head south and keep riding, or learn how to dress for the weather and ride through the winter. 

What the biker calls "turning into a slug," can also be described as the process of decay, which is a natural phenomenon. Most things, it seems, do not stay the same; if they are not improving, they are decaying. In the vocabulary of sports and fitness training, that is often expressed as "no pain/no gain," but the truth is, it is also no pain/no maintain. As bodybuilder Tom Venuto puts it, "The ultimate truth is, you are either moving forward or moving backward; growing or dying. There's no such thing as comfortably maintaining."

In fact, Venuto also applies the no pain/no gain philosophy to endeavors beyond physical. He says,  

"To grow, you must step above past achievements; beyond your perceived boundaries and limits. That means stepping out of the known, into the unknown; out of the familiar and into the unfamiliar; out of the comfortable into the uncomfortable. You must get out of your comfort zone." 

Do you think such a statement is true? 

If there is no pain, is there really no gain? 

Yeah, it really is. Of course, you can find studies online proclaiming the contrary, saying that the no pain/no gain idea is a "myth." Usually, however, the people making this claim also want you to buy their program that supposedly will make you fit with little or no effort - all for only three easy payments of $59.99.

The life-journey of every human being involves pain. We may wonder why. We may rebel against it. However, the harsh reality is that living things struggle and suffer to maintain life. Often, such pain deepens the experience and appreciation of life.

A statement by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow gives me pause. 

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. 

Paul, beginning in Romans 8:17, says that we are heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, but only if we suffer with him so that God might bring us glory with Christ. He will stress that what we suffer now is not worth comparing to the glory that shall be. In fact, creation suffers and groans, awaiting the redemption of humanity. Every part of the created order experiences decay. The destiny of creation is life with God and fellowship with God. Paul challenges his readers to expand their conceptual horizons and place chronological time and personal experience within the context of eternity. Paul invites his readers to catch a glimpse of the "big picture." God, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, has freed humanity. God, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is also effecting the liberation and redemption of the entire created order. Not only are persons enslaved, but the whole creation. Suffering unites all of creation. Human beings are to have dominion, yes, but they are to do so recognizing this bond they have all creation.

I am not trying to explain suffering. I am saying that suffering and pain in life is part of the training we experience that will reveal who we are. Does pain deepen our character, help us appreciate life, and even go deeper with God?

Lessons from Dangerous Computer Domains

"The world is getting to be such a dangerous place, a man is lucky to get out of it alive." – W. C. Fields

The author of that joke lived a long time ago, but the world is still a dangerous place. You can lead a life that brings you down the path of death, or a path that leads you toward life.

Let me see if an analogy from technology can help us. To re-phrase W. C. Fields, "The Internet is getting to be such a dangerous place, a computer is lucky to get out alive." The constant threat of a virus, malware, can kill them.

It has been said many times in our wired world that the Internet has created a global society - an environment where people from many different countries and cultures connect as neighbors, conduct business and explore the myriad ways in which humans live and work in the world. Thirty years ago, few people would have thought it possible to sit in your house and have the world readily available, traveling across the globe with just a few clicks of what would become known as a "mouse."

However, although the advent of the 'Net has revolutionized the way we live, work and do business, it has also brought to light some of the seamier aspects of human life. Because nobody really "runs" or controls the Internet, it is a wide-open smorgasbord of the sublime, the ridiculous and, most disturbingly, the salacious and the downright scary. Little did we know that little mouse would lead us down a rabbit hole of both wonder and wickedness.

Like any big city, or even like the countries of the globe, the Internet has some good and bad neighborhoods, each of which is known by its "domain." For the nontechnical person, the domain is the dot-whatever you type in when entering a Web address (.com, .net, .edu, .gov, etc.). The domain is the realm and designation of the Web site's type and/or origin, and different countries often have different domains (.us for U.S. government sites, .ca for Canada, .ru for Russia and the like). Like different neighborhoods, cities and countries, however, different domains can get different reputations based on the character of the people who "populate" them. Some domains are delightful, and some are downright devilish.

I try to keep up with this stuff. I got caught once when a harmless site for free wall paper and backgrounds got bought out by some pornography group. That was just odd. On Facebook, you get caught by clicking on something that appears relatively harmless and interesting, and suddenly there is a shot of someone or something that you would not want.

The point is, it is dangerous out there for you and for your computer.

Such dangers for our computers have also led companies to help us in protecting them. McAfee, a leading provider of Internet security for personal computers, recently released its list of the most dangerous domains on the Internet. The report was titled "Mapping the Mal Web" ("mal," of course, being shorthand for malicious, or the Spanish word for "bad" - you get the point). Spending too much time clicking around a dangerous domain can be bad for your computer - what with all the viruses, malware and spyware out there.

Some domains are unavoidable and are rated bad because of sheer volume. McAfee's number-one dangerous domain, for example, is the .com family of sites. It is by far the most prevalent domain, so it is the most likely to mess up your machine if you are not careful. Second is the .info (information) domain. This one might seem to be misplaced, but it may be a classic example of the adage, "Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it." Rounding out the top five are the domains of three Third World countries: .vn (Vietnam), .cm (Cameroon) and .am (Armenia). A good rule of thumb is that places you would not think of as a vacation spot are probably places you should avoid on the Internet, as well.

By contrast, the five safest domains are places you would probably like to go. The safest is .travel (used by travel-industry sites), followed by .edu (education), which is used by colleges and universities. The others are all seemingly nice countries: .jp (Japan), .cat (Catalan - a region of Spain) and .gg (Guernsey - an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, France, that is a possession of the United Kingdom).

In other words, the computer on the Internet is kind of like a human life, which has plenty of dangerous paths down which to travel. Human life needs some “anti-virus” and “mal-ware” protection for it.

It is not only your computer that can be affected by the disreputable activity of a dangerous domain. Perhaps even more insidious is the effect it can have on the person viewing what the domain is trying to push. Pornography sites, gambling sites, get-rich-quick sites, certain chat rooms and social-networking sites - all these are likely sources for both computer viruses and sickness of the soul. Addictions to these soul-crushing images and activities are a form of slavery to the real masters of the domain: evil, sin and spiritual death.

This reflection on “domains” makes me think of Paul, in his discussion of just two domains. We find it in Romans 6:12-23. We learn that Paul also had a concern for dangerous domains, long before McAfee ever hit the scene. His concern was for the realm or domain of sin and its ability to enslave us to its power. He invites us to live in another domain, one that is life-giving. As we learn with Paul, the point is not so much to “try,” but to abide “in Christ,” thereby letting the fruit of such abiding come forth in our lives.